Characterisation of spontaneous behaviour in Gottingen Minipigs in the home pen

Spontaneous behaviour in the home pen of group-housed minipigs was characterised with respect to social interaction, activity, locomotion, exploration and resting behaviour. Sixteen adult male and female Gottingen minipigs were allocated in three groups. Data were acquired at the age of seven and 16 months. Behaviour sampling was made by video recordings for two consecutive days per group. The median values for initiating and receiving social contact were one to four times per individual during 30 min of observation in the main "activity period" (found to be 4 - 4.30 put with the feeding regime) at both ages; the variation between pigs was considerable. The animals spend a large amount of their active time (during this time) exploring (76 %). During the six-hours resting period, three bouts of activity were conspicuous in all three groups, and the highest level of activity was around midnight. The level of social interaction at seven and 16 months of age did not differ significantly, and the social hierarchy of the pigs in the three groups showed a high degree of consistency at seven and 16 months. However, correlation analysis did not indicate a statistically significant relationship between the level of social interaction of the individual pig at the young age and the older age. As relatively little is known about spontaneous behaviour of Gottingen minipigs this basal characterisation of normal behaviour may serve as normative data for future studies of Gottingen minipig behaviour.